The Fall of Songhak Jin-in
Hong Ilgon met with countless figures from the Martial Alliance while assisting Baek Seon and Baek Hyeon.
With Baek Hyeon already having laid much of the groundwork, and their interests aligning with those of the Martial Alliance, securing the right personnel proved little difficulty.
If anyone might take issue with the rise of a Qingcheng Sect Leader friendly to the Martial Alliance, it would likely be someone from the Sichuan Dang Family. Should the Martial Alliance side with Qingcheng, the Dang Family would naturally find itself in an awkward position.
Yet a Dang Family that had declined so far as to stand on the verge of expulsion from the Nine Great Sects—reduced to being mocked as “Dangata” rather than the Sichuan Dang Family—could hardly have possessed the influence to install one of their own among the Martial Alliance’s key officers.
Thus it was only natural that a mediator friendly to Qingcheng, thoroughly shaped by the influence of Baek Hyeon and Hong Ilgon, would be dispatched.
“First we must firmly establish Qingcheng Sect’s representative, then negotiate with the Sichuan Dang Family. Let us put our own house in order first.”
“Indeed.”
The moment the mediator and Hong Ilgon’s party returned to Sichuan, they made straight for Qingcheng Sect.
Hearing that a mediator who would take his side had arrived from the Martial Alliance, Songhak Jin-in even summoned the elders and welcomed their return. He meant it as a kind of demonstration, a show of strength to stabilize his position, which had been shaking within Qingcheng Sect over recent events.
Moreover, the mediator who arrived was a far greater figure than expected.
“Welcome!”
Receiving Songhak Jin-in’s bright smile, the mediator laughed heartily.
“I am Hyeondeok, come from the Martial Alliance to serve as mediator.”
When the old monk whose eyebrows drooped like frost-bitten pine branches greeted him with a light chuckle, Songhak Jin-in bent at the waist and offered a cupped-fist salute. This old monk was someone before whom Songhak Jin-in had every reason to show such respect.
“To think that Master Hyeondeok Daesa, the Cheonsu Saengbul himself, would come… It is an honor to meet you thus.”
“Hehehe, what honor? I am simply glad to see you after so long.”
Cheonsu Saengbul, Master Hyeondeok.
Countless epithets adorned him, yet if one were to sum him up in a single phrase, it would be this: the greatest Shaolin monk since Bodhidharma.
Thirty years ago, when the Demonic Cult’s offensive had toppled Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Gansu and the Central Plains were being ravaged, he had single-handedly repelled a thousand-strong force of the Demonic Cult, saved the panicked common folk, and bought the Martial Alliance time to prepare its counterattack. Without him, the martial world would have been trampled beneath the Demonic Cult.
And this was no distant secret history, but an event of the same era as Songhak Jin-in himself. Songhak Jin-in remembered it vividly. The achievements of the Cheonsu Saengbul in that war were beyond any comparison with his own. It was no exaggeration to say that all of Sichuan owed him their lives, so there could be no more fitting mediator for a dispute arising in Sichuan.
“However… I find myself deeply troubled that I must have a rather unpleasant conversation with the Sect Leader.”
“…What?”
When Songhak Jin-in stiffened, sensing the odd turn in the atmosphere, Hyeondeok Daesa spoke.
“Sect Leader, the Alliance hopes that you will take up the post as Baek Hyeon Daoist’s successor.”
In that instant Songhak Jin-in’s eyes flashed like lightning. Behind Hyeondeok Daesa, using the old master almost as a shield, stood Baek Hyeon, Baek Seon, and even Hong Ilgon, all in a neat line.
These bastards…!
Grasping the situation in a heartbeat, Songhak Jin-in ground his teeth.
“Are you telling this poor Taoist to resign the position of Qingcheng Sect Leader?”
“To put it bluntly, yes. In exchange, a place will be prepared for you within the Alliance.”
“However lofty the Alliance’s authority may be, the selection of a Sect Leader is an internal matter of Qingcheng Sect. The Alliance has no right to interfere!”
“It is not a matter of the Alliance, Master.”
“Baek Seon…?”
Startled by the sudden step forward and the calm tone of Baek Seon Daoist, Songhak Jin-in demanded an answer. Baek Seon looked around at the assembled elders and spoke.
“This is a matter already discussed among the elders of Qingcheng Sect. Is that not so, Elders?”
“It is so!”
To Songhak Jin-in’s astonishment, those who answered Baek Seon Daoist’s call were not the men who had long urged his removal, but the ones who had kept to neutrality until now. Originally Songhak Jin-in’s faction had held roughly half the balance, with the neutrals and the anti-Songhak faction sharing the rest. Now the neutrals had joined the opposition.
Songhak Jin-in’s face flushed dark red.
“Baek Seon! You dare betray your master!”
“Betrayal, you say? Master Hyeondeok Daesa is present. Mind your words.”
“You… how dare you, after following me for decades, how can you…”
“Precisely because I have waited upon you for decades, Master. I cannot grow old and die as a nestling in the nest. I must try my wings, even if it means falling.”
Baek Seon’s utter lack of change in tone was, if anything, chilling.
“You have held that seat far too long. It seems even you have grown old, Master. In earlier days a matter of this scale would not have altered your complexion in the slightest… yet you excite yourself so easily.”
“Baek Seon…!”
Songhak Jin-in snarled. He whipped his head around toward Hyeondeok Daesa.
“Is this the will of the Alliance? Qingcheng could have been a steadfast patron of the Alliance!”
“Hehehe. Is the business of Qingcheng not something the Martial Alliance cannot interfere in?”
When Hyeondeok Daesa feigned dignified ignorance, Songhak Jin-in had nothing left to say. He himself had just declared that the selection of a Sect Leader was Qingcheng’s affair.
Baek Hyeon, who had kept silent until now, smiled thinly and spoke.
“Is there any need to brawl with outsiders? The elders are all conveniently gathered here. Let us take a vote. Those elders who favor the retirement of Songhak Jin-in, raise your hands.”
At once the opposition and the former neutrals all lifted their hands. Every neutral elder had already come under Baek Seon’s influence.
“Oh… fifteen… Exactly fifteen to fifteen, a perfect tie. And as it happens…”
Baek Hyeon Daoist smiled and raised his own hand.
“I have been away on Alliance duty so long that even I half-forgot it, but I too am an elder of Qingcheng with voting rights. I shall cast my vote. Fifteen to sixteen—the retirement of the Sect Leader is decided.”
The murmuring swelled. The flustered scramble among Songhak Jin-in’s own elders was a spectacle worth watching.
“Surely the replacement of a great sect’s leader cannot be handled in such a slapdash—”
“This is absurd!”
“Insolent! Baek Hyeon! What is the meaning of this!”
“Baek Seon! You traitor!!”
“…I’ve been had.”
Songhak Jin-in squeezed his eyes shut. He too was old ginger. Once the fury of being betrayed by a beloved disciple had burned away, the true shape of the situation came into focus.
“You would never have staged something like this on impulse, with an outside mediator present, without any plan. Everything has already been settled with the Martial Alliance, has it not?”
“Is that not only natural?”
“You worthless creature.”
With a face that seemed to have aged another ten years in an instant, Songhak Jin-in gave a hollow laugh.
“With your own hands you have made Qingcheng Sect a running dog of the Martial Alliance. I can already see it clearly—the slow decline of Qingcheng.”
At those words Baek Hyeon Daoist narrowed his eyes a fraction.
“Amusing. Is dealing with the Martial Alliance the problem? You yourself tried to deal with the Alliance to cling to that seat… How unsightly.”
“You fool. Do you think the price of a bargain that topples a Sect Leader who has governed the sect without incident for thirty years is the same as the price of a bargain that elevates a nobody to the seat of leadership? This is a matter of legitimacy. You have done nothing less than invite foreign power in order to seize a paltry throne. From now on every choice Qingcheng makes will be steered by the Martial Alliance. Pathetic.”
Songhak Jin-in sighed.
“Even if we had to fight, we should have fought among ourselves. If you coveted the Sect Leader’s seat, you should have properly courted the elders and raised open rebellion!”
“Without leverage of this scale the neutral elders would never have found the courage. Someone has ruled like a tyrant for far too long.”
“And you claim the seat of leadership without even the ability to overturn that? By your own mouth you have admitted your lack of capacity. A puppet Sect Leader who cannot even seize the position without the Martial Alliance’s help!”
Songhak Jin-in looked up at the heavens, sighed, then lowered his head and fixed his gaze on Hong Ilgon. When Hong Ilgon flinched under that stare, Songhak Jin-in spoke.
“…Ilgon. Did you also join them?”
“…I am sorry.”
“Hah.”
Songhak Jin-in gave a short, bitter laugh.
“Well. You were a merchant before you were my disciple; that much I can accept. But remember this one thing. No—this is for you as well, Baek Hyeon. It is the final counsel of the Seventeenth Sect Leader of Qingcheng. Engrave it in your hearts.”
“….”
“By all means, speak.”
“Do not contend with the Sichuan Dang Family through commerce or wealth. Yield them not even the smallest thing; hold fast to what you already possess. Only then can you avoid being swallowed whole. If you must oppose the Dang Family, do so solely as a martial sect, with force and with just cause alone. ‘That one’ is a natural disaster in human form. For as long as sixty years, until his era has passed, endure and endure again. Then, far in the future, the Dang Family will fail to surpass what he built and will collapse from within.”
It was a prophecy that the next age of endurance and decline—such as the past thirty years had been for the Sichuan Dang Family—had now dawned upon Qingcheng. Yet the only one who truly took the words to heart was the merchant, Hong Ilgon.
Baek Hyeon Daoist snorted.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“….”
Songhak Jin-in unbound the White Pine Sword, symbol of the Sect Leader, from its stand and drove the sheathed blade into the floor with a heavy thud. Then he turned away.
“You said a place had been prepared for me in the Martial Alliance? Speak of it when you return. I have some affairs to put in order around me.”
With those final words, Songhak Jin-in vanished from every official function of Qingcheng Sect.
After Songhak Jin-in’s retirement, Qingcheng Sect announced throughout Sichuan that it would hold a succession ceremony installing Baek Hyeon Daoist as the new Sect Leader. Others had coveted the seat as well, yet none could stand against a man who returned with the Martial Alliance’s backing behind him.
The invitation to the Qingcheng Sect Leader’s inauguration naturally reached the Sichuan Dang Family as well.
“At a time like this, Songhak Jin-in steps down and a new Sect Leader is installed…”
Reading the letter, Dang Un-sang frowned. Hwi-yeom gave a short laugh.
“They’re cutting the tail.”
“Exactly. They mean to dismiss the assassination attempt as the former Sect Leader’s sole fault.”
“And by inviting us to the ceremony they want to settle old grudges right there, or some such…”
“They’re calculating that no one will dare make a scene at someone else’s feast. Clever, if you like, but for a great sect of Qingcheng’s standing… rather petty.”
“I don’t know Baek Hyeon Daoist’s character—Baek Hyeon Jin-in, I suppose he is now—but this may well be that Hong fellow’s idea.”
“True enough…”
“What do you think?”
“A victim need not consider the perpetrator’s circumstances… yet the Martial Alliance has already sent Master Hyeondeok Daesa as mediator. We cannot entirely refuse to spare Qingcheng’s face.”
“So? We yield?”
“We pretend to yield, and take what we actually want.”
Hwi-yeom grinned.
“The basics of bargaining: demand grandly and walk away with the core. Just as you hide a simple true strike inside a flurry of flashy feints when you attack an enemy.”
“I know that much. So what, in your view, is the true strike we must obtain from Qingcheng this time, and what is the feint we wave about for show?”
“The feint must be something the other side can hear and still accept—visible interests. In this case, permanently transferring the mining rights to the coal field currently under a fifty-year lease would be about right.”
“Wait. That is not the real prize?”
“No, Father. After fifty years of mining, that coal field will effectively be played out. Qingcheng has never mined coal, so they won’t know that.”
“Hmm. Then what is it we truly need to secure?”
“Biseon Peak. A terrain of dozens of rocky spires. Because it is bare rock, no trees grow and no worthwhile minerals appear, so even Qingcheng has left the land neglected. At best it is used now and then as a place for light-body technique training.”
“Why would we want such a place?”
“The secret of Xuan Iron lies there.”
At Hwi-yeom’s words, Dang Un-sang’s eyes flashed.
“Is Xuan Iron buried there?”
“No.”
Hwi-yeom smiled.
“Well… something close enough.”